2009 to 2010 Season

Date: 25/10/09

River: Hurunui River, North Canterbury, New Zealand.

River Conditions: 50 cumecs at Mandamus. Water clear, cold and swift. Grade 2 (3).

Weather Conditions: Sunny but cool, with NE winds gusts.

Number on Trip: 5 people.

Time on River: 4 Hours.

Comments: This was my first whitewater trip in New Zealand in a while, I'd been trying to get a trip arranged for a while now but wasn't having much luck getting one off the ground. The weekend I was home was a long weekend but I wasn't able to spare a couple of days for an away trip, so I decided to organise my own trip up to the Hurunui. I put a general call out via Bob Spam but with bad weather looming and a lot of people planning to be out of town, the response was less than stellar. Still with a couple of days to go and an improving weather forecast, we had enough for a good day out.

We met up at the Belfast Tavern and admired the new fences and asphalt of the car park and hope this didn't mean that they'd changed they policy on non-patrons leaving their cars there. We decided to run the Hurunui from Jollie Brook down to Seawards and then for anyone keen, a run through Maori Gully. It was a beautiful sunny day but I was feeling pretty nervous on the drive up, worried that I'd forgotten how to paddle. At Seawards we changed in to our paddling gear, stacked all 5 boats on the roof of Colin's' car and all squeezed in for the drive up to the put in.

Once on the water the initial worries dissipated as I practiced ferry glides, surfing and breaking in and out of eddies. it seemed like I still remembered how to paddle.

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